La Tribu
by Zoey Overbeck
Summary: Sequel Songfic to S'envoler. Aelita and Jeremie have a little chat, and it's Jer that tries to help her see the light that she once had loved. A little fluff for Jerlita fans, so everybody's happy!


AN:Edited recently, on the request of Flyboy961. Songfic I have done in spare time. "La Tribu" by: The Subdigitals. Translations provided by Google… and stuff.

-**La Tribu-**

The room was completely dark, save for the pale white moonlight that created a pathway of light as it streamed down through the window into the room. The light cast a soft glow around the area it fell upon, barely highlighting a figure curled up on a bed, gently clutching a book in her hands, on one side of the room, its back against the wall. The hard-cover book was slightly crushed, the red and brown cover slightly faded. It had been another treasure that she had picked up from the Hermitage on another visit she had a few days earlier. The pictures on the front depicted various scenes of battles throughout the course of Ancient history, of faces and battles in places that were still noticeable, even after years went by without the book itself being cared for. The figure slightly stirred, sighing gently and uncurled from her current position, her legs now dangling off of the side of the bed. Although it was not quite curfew yet, she did not bother to turn on the lights, for whatever reason she held. The darkness did not bother her- in fact, she welcomed it with whatever remained of her empty heart, and she counted the minutes on her clock in a bored manner until it was fully past curfew time, the clock continuing to count off the seconds with a light ticking sound.

"Maybe someday..." she murmured to herself, not caring if someone heard her or not. "Maybe someday... I will finally fly away from this world..."

Sighing, she lay back on her bed again and closed her eyes in a resigned manner, nearly dozing off from the sheer boredom her life now seemed to be. Her mp3 player blasted music through her earphones at a near deafening rate, though she was not really listening, though she slightly moved her mouth and silently recited the lyrics to the song that was now playing. She noticed nothing, not even the yellow light coming from the crack between the door and the floor suddenly become shadowed somewhat by a figure outside of her door. In fact, the reason why the music was blaring, and why her eyes were closed was that she could not notice her surroundings, or hear anything that was happening at all. She simply did not care anymore, and did not wish to be part of the world that was outside of her dorm, electing to remain within the confines of her room instead of socializing, coming out for classes, or even eating at the times that Kadic served its meals. Groaning somewhat, her mind slowly recessed to the earliest memories that she could conjure up, and immersed herself in them.

_**J'ai des tonnes d'histoires dans ma mémoire, (**__**I have tons of stories in my memory)**__**  
**_

It was Christmas once again, and her parents were hugging her, her mother softly stroking her bright pink locks as she laughed with them before going off and gaily playing with her newest friend, the elfin doll she decided to call Mister Puck. Her father chuckled at her eagerness to play with the toy that he had made with the help of her mother, which was sewn and pieced together by her, as he could not, for his life, sew, knit, or stitch something. It was probable that her father had read too much Shakespeare, for Aelita had found out that there was a fairy/hobgoblin character in "A Midsummer's Night's Dream", while they covered it for English a few weeks ago. Aelita squeezed her eyes tighter, and tried not to think anymore, but the memories still came flooding in, unbidden by their owner.

For a second, Aelita could have sworn that she could have smelled her mother's scent again, the vanilla-y fragrance that she always seemed to have around her. Her memories began to come forward once more, though this time, they were more realistic than she had ever had been before. This time, however, it seemed that she could experience her memories as if the people or events happening at the time were happening in the current time period. She could see her parents in more depth than before, hear them clearly, feel them as if their hugs were the warm ones that she craved for again from them, and she could even swear that she could taste and smell the air, as if it was real. Turning over in her bed from the masses of memories that were playing over and over in her head, she never noticed a door open to spill the yellow light over her dorm room floor and to reveal a long shadow standing there in the doorway, until the figure shut the door behind him, removed her earphones, causing her to gasp in surprise and open her eyes in response.

"Aelita?" the figure asked, his voice laced with concern, looking worriedly at her when she looked at him strangely. "Are you okay? You haven't been acting yourself lately, and the group and I are worried… I'm worried…" Jeremie said, taking her hands in his when she did not immediately respond. Aelita immediately sat up in response, and tried to pull her hands out of his, only for him to grip her hands tighter.

_**Visages d'amis qui veulent croires, (**__**Faces of friends who want to believe)**__**  
Que plus rien n'est impensable, (that nothing is unthinkable)  
Que plus rien n'est impossible, (that nothing is impossible)**_

"Jeremie, what are you doing? You should be hanging out with our- I mean your friends…"she said in what she hoped was a toneless voice, beginning to turn her head away, thinking that he would eventually give up and go away, like the rest of them had done.  
"Aelita, listen to me…" Jeremie worriedly said, shaking her small form gently. "You're my friend… We can do this… we can break you out of this… and you'll lead your life with arms wide open once more!" Jeremie exasperatedly said, gently stopping his shaking, though it wasn't hard or rough in the first place. "Come on, Aelita!" he nearly yelled, anger at her hopelessness evident in his voice. "We've battled a near-unstoppable AI, and we've managed to win again and again! There's no reason why we can't win against your depression! We're friends, boyfriends and girlfriends, even!" he continued, blushing a little at his last statement.

_**Nos amitiés sont des royaumes, (Our friendships are kingdoms)  
Nos coeurs se mêlent dans ce dome, (our hearts are mixed in this dome)  
Et nos espoirs sont communs, (and our hopes are common)  
Soudés jusqu'au bout du chemin. (welded to the end of the road)  
**_

Aelita resisted the strong urge to hit him as he continued to beg and plead to her. It was enough that he had to come in and bother her when she was obviously trying to be seperate from the rest of the world, but trying to get her to do something she didn't feel like doing at the moment? It took most of her willpower not to suddenly leap on him and try to drive him away by whatever method she deemed to be appropriate at the moment. In one fluid movement, she whipped her hands out of his, and roughly pushed him back in an an attempt to shove him off her bed. However, Jeremie titled forward and clung onto the edge of the bed, as if he were a drowning man, and re-arranged himself, rolling over onto her bed again, his back against the mattress, and his eyes betraying his slight annoyance at her action.

"We… we've stuck together to fight XANA, and… it's you Aelita… you've gotten us to be friends, so do you really want to destroy our friendship?" Jeremie inquired, lightly turning her over to face him. "Aelita, answer me please… 'lita…?" Jeremie quietly asked.  
"What's the point?" she muttered, trying to turn away from him, and getting annoyed when he prevented her from turning away. "I believe that you should have turned the supercomputer off as soon as XANA appeared to terrorize this world. It's my fault that he was still alive…"  
"Listen Aelita, we're still on the same path… the same goal… and we had walked down that road, in order for XANA to be destroyed, so that you, as well as the world, can finally live without fear. I know that you're still upset in what had happened when we were destroying XANA and winning the war against him, so come on, Aelita… you know that I will never give up so easily."

_**Vivre, suivre nos routes sans nous perdre de vue, **__**Living, we follow our roads without losing sight)**__**  
Vivre, suivre des doutes sans peur d'être déçus, (**__**Live, followed doubts without fear of being disappointed)**__**  
Comme une tribu, une famille, (**__**As a tribe, a family)**_  
_**Se soutenir à chaque défi, (**__**To support each challenge)**__**  
Nous toucherons de près la lumière, (**__**We will reach nearly light)**__**  
Et nous seront fièrs d'être frères. (**__**And we are proud to be brothers)**_

Aelita turned, and weakly looked over to him, from the lack of nutrition that she had received due to her unwillingness to eat. It was true that she still believed in fighting XANA, and that the battle could be won, but not so easily. Though she still believed in that her father's sacrifice in fighting to the finish and destroying XANA once and for all, saving the world and securing its safety from the rouge AI, there was something that was holding her back- fear. Standing alone against ones fears did not bode well for a person, especially her, because she practically had lived in fear and terror for the majority of her life. She was afraid of telling Jeremie how she felt at the moment, she was afraid of what would happen if they continued to live their lives if she was still in her depressive state, she was afraid of what might happen if they had lost all threads of the friendships because of her, and she was afraid of what might happen to her friends if they did lose, where they ended up in life without her to hold them together and keep them from fighting most of the time.

Though Aelita did not keep a strong connection with her friends, she still considered them to be her friends, as they did give her a lot of things that she was grateful for, mainly for her life, and for the feeling of being truly loved that Jeremie had brought to her. As Jeremie searched into the dull emerald orbs that he had come to hate in the previous weeks, he noticed something that gave him hope again before it was swallowed up again in the dull green sea of her eyes. It was a glimmer of light, perhaps, that was buried within the green orbs. Although small in the contrast of the straight and bored face she had put up as part of a facade, it was an emotion nonetheless, that she had displayed other than the bored and uncaring expression she had taken up over the weeks. Such a sign, even if the glimmer was in fact a fear which he had no idea abou, excited Jeremie, and he realized that there was a miniature version of what she used to be and what she had stood for before this... this dark cloud had taken over her life. He could then try to awaken the little Aelita in her, and finally free her from being trapped, just as he had done before when she was stuck on Lyoko. Noticing that her eyes started growing shiny once more as the fears began to take a deeper root in her being, Jeremie's though processes went blank at the sight of it, and before he acknowledged what he was doing, he leaned forward, and placed a caring hand on her shoulder.

Aelita, feeling the pressure his arm had on her shoulder, was about to bat his hand away or at least punch him in her irritation when something had stopped her. Something inside of her soothed her, and calmed her enough so that she accepted the gesture of kindness that he had offered her. The feeling inside of her poked and prodded at the fiber of her being, and slowly started changer her personality from the inside out again. Jeremie, noticing her eyes start to glimmer more and more with emotions, and the eyes brimming with tears, performed another action that he usually would not have the courage to do. He reached out for her, and pulled her into a strong, but gentle hug without fully realizing it until it was done, his cheeks turning almost as pink as Aelita's hair when he had realized what he had done.

**_J'ai des tonnes d'histoires dans ma mémoire, (_****_I have tons of stories in my memory)_****_  
Des regards qui ont pu voir, (_****_The eyes that have seen)_****_  
Plus loin que ce qu'on leur montrait, (_****_Farther than what they showed)_****_  
Plus loin que ce qu'on leur mentait, (_****_Farther than what they lied)_****_  
Ils en sont revenus un jour, (_****_They came back one day)_****_  
Avec un message d'amour, (With a message of love)  
Depuis, ensemble, on s'est promis, (_****_Since then, together, we promised)_****_  
De vivre toujours sans répit. (to live again without respite)_**

At first, Aelita gave a soft cry of protest and struggled, attempting to wriggle out of his grasp before realizing the hopelessness of the situation, and allowing him to continue to perform his hugging, her cheeks lightly tinting to a color as pink as he hair, blood rushing to them in response to her feelings for him. Jeremie, feeling her calm down in his hold, sensed that she was still tense and jumpy, released his grip of her on one of his hands, and started stroking the back of her hair with his hand. Aelita gave another soft cry, but this was not in desperation or in an attempt to be freed, it was in recognition of her memories as they started to come back, stronger than ever as he continued to do this. Jeremie rested his head on her shoulder, and began to whisper words of comfort to her, continuing to stroke her hair in what he thought was the best thing to do at the moment.

For a moment, Aelita's vision blurred, and Jeremie's figure was replaced by her mother, the dark background of her dorm room being replaced by the mountain cabin momentarily, before the scene laid out before her fizzed away, like a dream when a person was waking up. Jeremie could have easily been like her mother, imitating her in her actions and her words of comfort, like what she had done when she was a small child, terrified by everything in the outside world. Her mother would sit her on her lap on her bed, and gently hug her, all the while giving soothing words to her to ease her tension. Jeremie, noting her calmer demeanor, decided that now was the time to tell her, and so he did, whispering her words of affection to her. It could be logical thought that Jeremie and her friends was like her family, Jeremie being the parenting type, Yumi being the older sister, Odd being the younger brother, Ulrich being the older brother who was constantly annoyed at Odd's antics, and Kiwi being like the family pet.

Aelita's bitter struggle of her inner self against the depression quieted down, inner calm flooding through her being as her inner self began to allow the physical and mental being to revert back to the state it once was before the cloud of depression descended upon her. Jeremie, fidgeting a little that he did not get a reply from her that she had either loved him too, or had not loved him anymore, was about to say something when he felt something warm and wet on his shoulders. There, where Aelita rested on his shoulders, were two spots of wetness where her tears had fallen.

About to say something, she did something that he did not expect at the moment. Her small arms found his way around him, and she squeezed him in her hug, openly crying in front of him. Though she suffered from the lack of eating at the moment, she had poured most of the remaining reserves of her strength to hug him, to show that she really cared and was not the empty shell she appeared to be. Shortly after, there was the small burst of a small sob that came from her, followed by confessions that she did have deep feelings for him too, and was worried for his and the others sake. Her confession came at a shock to him, and all thoughts beside one immediately fled but one, which dictated that he stay with her for as long as he can, through this rough and turbulent time, and to dispel all her fears of abandonment and the thoughts of being unloved within her mind.

**_Vivre, suivre nos routes sans nous perdre de vue, (_****_Living, we follow our roads without losing sight)_****_  
Vivre, suivre des doutes sans peur d'être déçus, (_****_Live, followed doubts without fear of being disappointed_****_)_****_  
Comme une tribu, une famille, (_****_As a tribe, a family)_****_  
Se soutenir à chaque défi, (_****_To support each challenge)_****_  
Nous toucherons de près la lumière, (_****_We will reach nearly light)_****_  
Et nous seront fièrs d'être frères. (_****_And we are proud to be brothers)_**

Aelita continued to cry into Jeremie's shoulder for quite a time, and Jeremie continued to stay with her, understanding that he had to be strong and support her tonight, instead of the cowardly self he usually was.

**_Vivre, suivre nos routes sans nous perdre de vue, (_****_Living, we follow our roads without losing sight)_****_  
Vivre, suivre des doutes sans peur d'être déçus, (_****_Live, followed doubts without fear of being disappointed)_****_  
Nos routes sans nous perdre de vue, (_****_Our roads without us lose sight)_****_  
Et nous seront fièrs d'être frères. (_****_And we are proud to be brothers)_**

As time passed, Aelita's sobs grew quieter and they lessened until they stopped, her breathing slowing down from its erratic state that it was it as she was crying hard until it quieted, and only the near-silent sound of normal breathing remained from both of them. They remained upon her bed for a long time.

"Aelita?" he asked, fearing that she had silently passed away, was relieved by her soft breathing, and the light thumping sounds made by her heart.

Jeremie, noticing that it was really late, and Jim's patrols were really going into effect before he retired, was about to dislodge Aelita and bid her goodnight if she awakened, as she seemed like she recovered at the moment, noticed that he couldn't quite get her off of him. Deciding that he would probably make too much noise in the hallway and attract attention, and that Aelita still probably needed him as much as ever, Jeremie smiled, and gently released her arms from his torso. Gently leaning on the wall near where her head was supposed to go when she slept, he relaxed himself into a near sitting position, and rested her relaxed head against his chest, before falling asleep. If he had stayed awake longer, however, he would have seen her wake up from her light sleep to discover him still with her, smile, and fall asleep again to the steady rhythm of his heart, lightly rubbing her head against him, and glad that she could finally show her emotions and affection towards him without anyone interrupting the moment.

**-We are one-**


End file.
